Vancouver History

Want a conversation stopper at your next party? Just bring up the impending real estate meltdown in Vancouver –the one where house prices implode. You’ll be mocked and told how interest rates are at historically low levels and you’ll hear all about those swarms of filthy rich Chinese flooding our borders. Then, they’ll tell you… Continue reading Seriously–you think your house price won’t tank?

Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and A Charismatic Killer Set in middle-class Kerrisdale, the green duplex at 2092 West 42nd Avenue is such an ordinary place it’s hard to imagine it was the stage for one of the most sensational murders in Vancouver’s history. Esther Castellani, 40, died in 1965… Continue reading The Sensational Murder of Esther Castellani

The Empress Theatre on West Hastings went up in 1908 and came down in 1940, and in its heyday it had the biggest stage west of Chicago. In the 1930s it was owned by Hollywood stars Fay Holden and David Clyde who also owned a house on 51st Avenue in East Vancouver

This is one of my favourite finds at the Vancouver Archives. The house at 755 Bute Street is long gone, but was once owned by Dr. James Farish, a Vancouver ear, eye and nose specialist. On September 4, 1918, Victor Bishop, 23, was home on leave from the War, when the builders—Jimmy and Henry Hoffar, asked him to take their seaplane for a test spin over Burrard Inlet.

It’s too bad Chuck couldn’t be at his memorial service this afternoon. He would have loved it. For starters there were a couple of hundred people there—a totally eclectic crowd, pretty much like the guy himself. The only thing we had in common was that Chuck had touched us all in some way. Local legends… Continue reading Chuck Davis (1935-2010)

If you’re planning to enter the James Cunningham Seawall Race this month, spare a thought for its namesake, Jimmy Cunningham. The little Scotsman spent 32 years of his life heaving granite blocks weighing hundreds of pounds and built over half of the 9.5 kilometre wall.

During WW2 more than 3,000 Japanese-Canadian women and children were ripped from their homes and housed in the Livestock Building in Hastings Park